True Dungeon Details
For Gen
Con Indy 2007
Greetings all True Dungeon gamers!
First, check out our
preview event video by clicking on the link below. It was tough to come up with something that
does not give a lot away. You’ll just
have to wait until Gen Con to see the cool new sets. After the video, check out the event details
below. Thanks for taking the time to
read this LONG newsletter!
True Adventures, Ltd.,
producer of the smash-hit event "True Dungeon", is pleased to announce the
details of its "True Dungeon" event at Gen Con Indy (August 16-19, 2007) in
downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The
event, once again sponsored by Wizard of the Coast, will feature two similar
versions of the same adventure, and it will boast many improvements over last
year’s well-received event.
This year’s event entitled
"Race Across Greyhawk" will be offered in two slightly different orientations. One adventure, labeled "Race Across Greyhawk
(Combat)" will offer players a more combat-oriented scenario. Its counterpart entitled "Race Across
Greyhawk (Puzzle)" will challenge players with more puzzles than melee. Both of these adventures will be very similar
to each other in layout, and only two out of seven encounter areas in each
adventure will be different than its counterpart. Both adventures will still offer puzzle and
combat challenges, but each will be slightly concentrated on either puzzles or
combat.
The event is being structured
in this manner for several reasons.
These factors include the availability of only single pieces of certain
props, the desire of the designer to provide a more "tailored-fit" scenario,
and the reality of certain physical plant limitations. In short, the event will be the "coolest"
since it tweaks available resources and it allows players to experience the
kind of True Dungeon that interests them the most. It is important to note that double True
Dungeon Experience Points will not be awarded for playing both versions. If you play both versions, you will receive
only the amount of XP equal to the farthest room you reached in both
versions. The same is true for Hardcore
players. You will receive only the
amount of XP equal to the farthest room you reached if you play both versions
in Hardcore mode. The only opportunity
to receive two XP totals would be to play the adventure in both
True Dungeon event ticket
times that end in an even number will be the puzzle-oriented adventures, while
those that end in an odd number will challenge players’ combat prowess to a
great extent. Again, the ticket title
will also include the words "puzzle" or "combat" to inform players of which
version of "Race Across Greyhawk" they will be playing.
The Module: The theme
for this year’s module picks up where last year’s event concluded. The city of
Now falsely thought to be
allies of evil, your group has been commanded to deliver a dangerous weapon to
Iuz outside the city walls. To evade the
City Watch your group must clandestinely travel across the city of
List of Improvements: It is very
important to note that the people behind True Dungeon have spent the last year
carefully considering how to improve the event in 2007. After some trial runs at Gen Con So Cal in
November of 2006, we have designed many improvements for 2007.
Better DM Staffing/Training/Scheduling:
We are pleased to announce that all DMs
at Gen Con Indy will be full-time DMs who will receive extensive training
before the event. Each room in the
adventure will be given over to two full-time DMs who will exclusively run it
throughout the Con. They will tweak and
tune the room before and during the event, and they will be experts at making
their rooms the most enjoyable for the players.
All DMs will have exacting knowledge of the room they are running.
Bigger/Better Dungeon: We are nearly doubling the size of the
adventure from last year, and the sets themselves will be much more detailed. While the number of encounter areas will stay
the same at seven, the rooms will be bigger - and the spaces between the rooms
will feel more like dungeon corridors.
In addition, we are adding more types of environments than just your
typical dungeon setting. Your race
across Greyhawk will take you to some interesting locations.
Better Sound/Music:
At Indy 2006, in each room, we placed the five speakers of our 5.1 surround
sound system at the top of the walls -- and we pointed them down at an angle
toward the players. We discovered too late that those speakers are really not
directional in their sound projection, and that they pretty much put out sound
in a complete sphere. This caused a lot of sound to travel outside the desired
experience location. At So Cal we placed the speakers about three feet off of
the ground inside the room. Since the
stone on the walls make perfect sound absorption tiles, the sound was well
contained at So Cal. The result? We had virtually no sound problems at So Cal
other than when two rooms were four feet apart. (We were very cramped at So
Cal!) This is great news for Indy 2007, as the long saga of sound problems
should be concluded. Yeah!
Player Coaches: The
admin and training was handled differently at So Cal than Indy, and we plan to
implement what we have learned this year. First, the ticketing and XP
registering will be moved back into the hallway so that is no confusion as to
where players are to go when they arrive.
Players will not enter the True Tavern until after their event is over.
Up to 30 minutes before
their start time, players will be allowed to enter inside the ballroom into a
Marshalling Area where ten big tables await -- with each table being labeled to
correspond with a start time (:00 or :12, for example). It will be a quiet,
player-only area that will be a great place to meet teammates before the event. Players can trade tokens, pick characters and
help newbies so teams can get a jump start on organizing their team. Character
sheets and reference materials will be on the table for reference. By the start
of the event, most groups will be ready to go.
At the event start time a
veteran TD player called a "Coach" will come over and introduce herself. She will then spend the next 12 minutes with
the group to make sure all party members understand how combat, tokens and
characters work inside True Dungeon. A combat board will be available in the
Marshalling Area to help explain the combat system. Also, Coaches can gauge the players’
experience level so that they can tailor their message to fit the group. Even veteran groups might learn a few tricks
from a Coach.
At the end of that
12-minute segment, the Coach will move their group into the Training Room that
houses all the class-specific training stations. Again, combat will be covered and
practiced by the fighter types while the non-fighters practiced their class
skills. At the end of this 12-minute
segment the Coach will introduce the players into the adventure. It is during this prep phase that the Drow
will re-appear and give you your mission.
Hit Point Counters:
Players will be given the responsibility of tracking their own hit points with
the use of personal hit point trackers. DMs
will no longer be required to take valuable time to mark character sheets with
a dry erase marker. Instead the DM will
just call out, for example, "Rogue, the zombie slashes your side for 5 points
of damage," or "Wizard, the Cleric just healed you for 7 points of
damage." This simple change will make
combat and other damage-related game mechanics much faster and more fun.
Personal Neck Lights:
All players will receive a personal white LED necklace light to use throughout
the dungeon. The tiny lights will be
shrouded in a black tube so they will not normally visible to other players,
and they will be great lights to read tokens, character sheets and hit point
counters. These small LEDs are not very bright, so their use as environmental
light sources is very limited. This keeps them from overpowering a room, but
they do end many player frustrations.
Awesome Treasure Tokens: We have greatly improved the look and feel of
the True Dungeon Treasure Tokens this year.
They are now made of a very heavy composite material that feels like
metal, and they have a "gold piece" appearance on one side. The other side boasts a cool full-color image
of the treasure item, as well as vital information about the object. The tokens now feature info about which
classes can use the item and how many hands it takes to wield. These tokens are available to earn inside the
adventure, at the Event Reg Desk, and they can be purchased NOW in 10-packs for
$10 at www.truedungeon.com. All players get a free 10-pack of tokens at the
start of their event. These can be
traded among players on a team to maximize the group’s survival.
Videos of the new tokens
in action can be found at the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maOzIDwaPCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwLf9_1RtjE
Controlled Combat Board Spotlights:
DMs will be able to activate a spotlight on the combat boards so that there
will be plenty of light during melee. It is a great way to provide ample light
for combat, while maintaining the ambience in a room when combat is not going
on.
Party Cards:
After everyone has their tokens distributed in the Marshalling Area, the Coach will
fill out a ½-page cardstock sheet that records many of the players' vital
statistics. This allows the DM to have an easy reference sheet during combat --
as well as soon as the party enters a room and gives the Party Card to the DM.
At a glance the DM can see what characters are in the party, and she will see
all the vital info about them. As a result combat will be much less hectic,
easier to understand for new players, much faster and a whole lot more fun for
both the DM and players.
A Surprise!: We will be making another cool addition to
True Dungeon, but instead of highlighting it here, we will be keeping it
secret. We will say that it should allow
players to get a better feel for what it would be like to venture into a dark
and dangerous dungeon. This should be a
lot of fun!
How to Get Tickets
The event will cost $34.50
per ticket, and they can be purchased in advance starting at 4:00pm (Pacific) on Monday, May 7th
at www.gencon.com. Event tickets for other events go on sale
four hours earlier at Noon, but TD tickets go on sale at 4:00 (PDT).
Since the event sells out
very quickly, it is recommended that very interested players log on the first
day to purchase tickets. There are 7
players per group (or timeslot), and one person may buy all 7 tickets at one
time. If the tickets are sold out when
you check the website on May 7th, please check back on May 10th. Any tickets that are trapped in shopping
carts on May 7th will be released at that time. Last year a few hundred tickets were
available in this manner.
We acknowledge
that the increase in price may place the event out of the reach of some players. We very much regret the fact we have to
increase the price each year, but rising convention costs, the loss of the
SoCal event, as well as lack of additional space to expand the Indy event
prevents us from keeping costs static.
So we are truly sorry if the event becomes out of reach for some
players. It is, unfortunately, the price
we have to pay in an ever more costly environment. We also must be cautious as the event did not
cover all its expenses last year, and it consumed its entire accumulated
savings.
The event lasts about two
hours, and admission price includes a free bag of treasure tokens ($10 value)
and one free admission into the True Dungeon Tavern ($3 value).
Finally, if all seven
players in a group agree, we will allow an 8th player to play in an
adventure. A person who could not get a
ticket and wishes to be this 8th person should register at the
Waiting List Desk in the event admin area.
You must present $39.00 worth of Generic Tickets at that time. A group of seven can pre-select a friend to
bring along - just make sure the people at the event admin area are aware of
the situation, and that the friend has $39.00 worth of Generic Tickets. The areas are bigger this year, so we are
allowing an 8th person if the ENTIRE groups wants it.
Player’s Guide To True Dungeon
You can download a free
PDF of our Player’s Guide by clicking HERE. The Guide provides an overview of the
character classes, class skills, spells and combat. It is a must read for any serious TD player
or anyone who is interested in how TD works.
Other Events
True Arena will be making
a return with a few improvements, and it should be a lot of fun for you combat
oriented gamers. We are also sponsoring
a True Dungeon seminar called "True Dungeon 101" that will be a great introduction
for new players - and it will offer some helpful advice that even veterans can
use.
Conclusion
The play-test of this
year’s dungeon was extremely well received, and we are tweaking it further to
make it even more fun. The adventure
will be big, cool and very immersive, and it should bring a lot of smiles to
the faces of D&D fans everywhere.
This year’s event should make our 5th anniversary very
special. See you there!
Jeff Martin
Director